What does happiness mean to you? Often times people think of happiness in two different ways.

The common view of happiness is hedonic well-being – which is the belief that happiness is based on the amount of joyful and pleasurable experiences you have. This is the kind of happiness you get from eating a delicious piece of cake, or winning the lottery, or having sex. It’s basically “feeling good.”

The other view of happiness is eudaimonic well-being – which is the belief that happiness is based on having a sense of purpose and meaning in life. This is the kind of happiness you get from following your passion, helping others, contributing to society, and identifying yourself as part of a “bigger picture.”

A new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found that individuals who scored high on meaningful happiness (or “eduaimonic well-being”) showed healthier gene expression than those who only scored high on pleasurable happiness (or “hedonic well-being”).

The implication of this study is that meaningful happiness can improve our well-being on both a psychological and biological level. Why is this?

According to psychologists Barbara Frederickson and Steven Cole, feelings of loneliness, grief, and loss can often activate a stress response in our genes. They put out bodies into an unhealthy state where we feel like our lives are being physically threatened.

However, having a sense of meaning and purpose in your life can often give you a sense of connectedness and belonging, especially with other people, which counteracts this “threat mode” response.

Finding meaning in your life is all about identifying the role you play in a “bigger picture” – whatever you define that to be: your relationships, career, society, nature, God, or anything outside of just your own scope of experiences.